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AGAINST THE ANiNHXATION OF TliC 
HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 



SPEECH 



HON.JOIINL. MITCHELL, 



OF V/ISCONSIN, 



SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 



Tuesday, June 21, 1898. 



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S 1' E E C II 

OF 

HON. JOHN L. MITCHELL. 



The Sennto havinpr under <'jn8idoration tho joint ri'solution ( H. Res. 259) 
to provide for annexing th'j Ilawaiiuu laluuds to the United States- 
Mr. MITCHELL .saiil: 

Mr. Pkesident: Just beforo the outbreak of the present war it 
wus loudly claimed by the advocates of Hawaiian annexation that 
a majority of the peojjle of this country wore with them. If this 
was really the condition, it came through feeding the people on 
fine phrases until there was no room left for the hard food of 
truth. They were not convinced by argument. They had been 
carried away by catch-words: "Manifest destiny,'" "tho logic of 
events," "now is the golden hour,"' "the mastery of the Pacific. * 
Tho simile of "ripe fruit falling into the lap" has been a favor- 
ite with many, unmindful of the warning of the poet in the matter 
of sea fruit: 

The D.^ad Sea fruit (hat tcnij)ts the oyo 
But turns to ashes ou the lips. 

The serious study of public questions is a good deal like work. 
It is easier to float gayl\ along on an intoxicating tide of senti- 
mental gush. 

And now tho Philippines be upon us. The nation, shorn of its 
judgment, is led captive by its emotions. We are to establish 
ourselves permanently in the far East, and must have a coaling 
station in mid-Pacific {is a basis for aggressive action. Under a 
passing stress of war we are to bo pressed into taking a first step 
in imperialism— a policy which may benefit tho favored few, but 
to the ordinary mortal it mcatis tho path to the barracks or pos- 
sibly the poorhonse. Ail this at the precise time when we sliouUl 
avoid compromising ventures. Europe already questions our sin- 
cerity in the dcclaratiim touching Cuba. Tlio seiairo of Hawaii 



■would remove any doubt as to our all-round land-grabbing inten- 
tions. Giving no heed to the war whoop, we should consider this 
subject dispassionately. 

Annexation might he^p Hawaii itself. But our duty reriuires 
us to look at this question from a i^urely selfish standpoint. 
Unless this measure is clearly to the advantage of the United 
States, we must cast it out. 

While annexation ouglit not to be permitted without a full and 
free expression on the i:)art of the Hawaiians, still it is not mate- 
rial whether the Hawaiian population, in mass or in any propor- 
tion, desire annexation or not. It is for them to show a clean bill 
of political health as a condition precedent to admission. Tlio 
men in the bowels of the wooden horse were anxious to enter 
Troy, but they proved undesirable citizens after they were let in. 
Are we bound to admit to our domestic circle every wanderer 
who raps at our door? Before we enter into a business partner- 
ship) we scrutinize. Before entering into a political partnership 
we should be more careful still, for the bonds are more difficult to 
dissolve. We owe the Hawaiians much. In times past they have 
sent us bananas and we have returned them fleas and gunpowder. 
They have sent us pinsapples and we have returned them muskets, 
mosquitoes, and the measles. There is an uncomfortable balance 
against us, but to demand annexation to square accounts is ask- 
ing too much. 

Putting aside all considerations of the constitutionality of this 
resolution and pinning ourselves down strictly to the question of 
expediency, arc there any commo?a-sense grounds for the acquisi- 
tion of these islands? Will the diverse peoples which inhabit them 
bring a strengthening element to our body politic? Are they of 
sufficient commercial and strategic value to warrant a large out- 
lay of money? I bjlieve that all these questions may be safely 
answered in the negative. 

The area of the islands is not extensive, a little over 0,000 square 
miles. Of this only about one-quarter is fit for cultivation. The 
interior of the islands is devoted to raising volcanoes. If the 
United States is in search of mountain property, they can not do 
better. But one would think that the ' ■ Rockies "' ought to suffice 
in this line. A narrow strip along the shore, of intermittent fer- 

SiS'J 



6 

tilily, is devoted to raising cane— snL;ar cane, lu thofea grow an 
abundance of fish and tidal waves. The climate is mild and o(iua- 
ble. There is an inviting stanza that touches our sensibilities: 

(.'omo to this laud of the suu-ct sea. 
Where the year is wrai>i)0(l in j;oldcn weather, 

Wlici-e the months are striuiir on sunbeam threads 
And clasped with roses aud pinks together. 

Nothing but sunbeams and flowers becomes monotonous to dis- 
traction. They cloy like a steady diet of sugar candy. For nine 
months of the year the wind is constantly in the northeast— no 
fitful breeze, but a steady blow; something between a zephyr and 
a typhoon. During the rest of tho year, by way of compensation, 
it blows from the southwest. 

In trying to take this Hawaiian rainbow apart, I have not con- 
fined my reading to the special pleas of the pamphleteers. From 
what appears to be an unprejudiced source, I quote words writ- 
ten some years ago, before sugar had become king, and before the 
importation of Mongolian and Portuguese laborers: 

The Hawaiian Islands can hardly be regarded as a field for emigration. 
Farming, as we understand it, is unknown. Tlie dearth of insectivorous bird.s 
seriously affects the cultivation of the soil. Tho narrow gorges, in which 
terraced "patched cultivation" is so succes.sful, offers no temptations to a 
man with the world before him. The larger areas reriuire labor, and labori s 
not to be had. Though wheat and other cereals mature, attacks of weevils 
prevent their storage, and all the grain and Hour consumed is imported from 
California. Beef is plentiful and sells for enough to pay for cutting up tho 
carcass. Cacao, cinnamon, and allspice are subject to an apparently ineradi- 
cable blight. The blight which has attacked the coffee shrub is so severe that 
tho larger plantations have been dug up, and coffee is now raised by patch 
culture, mainly among the guava shrub which fringes the forest. Oranges 
suffer from blight also, and some of tho finest groves have been cut down. 
Cotton suffers from tho ravages of a caterjjillar. 

Tho mulberry tree, which, from its rapid growth, would bo invaluable to 
ailk growers, is covered with a black and white blight. Sheep arc at present 
very succes.sful, but in some localities tho spread of tho pestilent oat burr is 
depreciating the value of their wool. Tho forests, which arc essential to tho 
well-being ot the island, are disappearing in some rjuarters. owing to tho at- 
tacks of a grub as well as the ravages of cattle. Cocoanuts, bananas, yams, 
Bwcct potatoes, and kalo are free from blight, and so are potatoes and rlco. 
While everyone can live abundantly and without the sweat of tho brow, but 
few can make money, owing to tho various forms of blight, the scarcity of 
labor, and tho lack of a piofitablo market. Settlements are disappearing, 
valley lands are fulling out of cultivation, and hilograssand guava .scrub aro 
burying tho traces of a former population. 

In Is'JO the total value of imports into Hawaii was ab'out $7,000,- 

000. Of this the United States contributed a little less than 

§■■,,000,000. This is a commerce in which otli' r countrif s can not 
'MAJ 



6 

compete with ns, antl no change in the political condition of the 
islands would deprive tis of it. In 1890 there was esjiorted of 
rice, $195,000; bananas, §125,000; hides, $00,000; coffee, $53,000. 
Leaving out sugar, these figures show the relative importance of 
the chief products of the islands ami also the in.-iguificance of 
the coffee crop. 

The total value of exports for ISOO was (>15,51."),000, of which 
sugar figures for .^14,932,000. With the exception of $102 worth, 
all this sugar came to the United States. If the siigar imported 
into the United States had paid a dut}- of 2 cents a pound, some 
$7,000,000 would have gone into the United States Treasury. 
Spealdng roundly, in 1S9G, of the fifteen and a half million dollars 
of exports, hut half a million was made up of products other than 
sugar. It is evident that sugar is supreme in Hawaii. All other 
industries are insignificant. In the production of sugar large capi- 
tal is essential to pecuniary success. Some forty capitalists control 
the sugar industry of the islands. There were in their employ 
in 1890, 23,780 laborers. Of these, there were 1,615 Hawaiians, 
2,268 Portuguese, 12,893 Japanese, 6,289 Chinese, 115 South Sea 
Islanders, and 600 of all other nationalities. About half of all these 
men are contract laborers, living under a condition of virtual 
chattel slavery, a condition that the present Republic has not seen 
fit to remed}'. 

These men are paid from §12.50 to $15 per month, without board. 
Practically the Mongolians produce the sugar of the islands. They 
work for wages that white men would not accept, and they suffer 
hardships and privations that white men could not endure. 
American laborers who may migrate to Hawaii in the hope of 
betterment, if they continue to exist at all, would rapidly degen- 
erate. Tliey would succumb to their surroundings, stained like 
the dyer's hand by the element it works in. 

The Mongolian is essential to the profitable production of sugar. 
It is admitted that the undertaking would be a financial failure 
without him. Broadly speaking, sugar is all there is to the 
Hawaiian Islands commercially, and the Mongolian is all there is 
to sugar, except the big capitalist. The big capitalist is afraid of 
the abrogation of the present treaty; hence the annexation proj- 
ect, which is a clumsy cover for a mercenary scheme. Saccharine 



tiicldos out all aroniul it; the trail of sugar is over it all. It is 

(inito time that this assertive commoility gave this Legislature a 

respite. 

But lands, imports, exports, manufactures, nioni'j- do not make 

a nation. It is men— men strong in their svbilitj- to toil, firm set 

io those civic virtues that alone malce self-government possible. 

In the words of an eminent divine: 

The groatnessof America is in Iior democracy. America, as no oth'.T na- 
tion, honors manhood, consecrates its ritrhts and gives it the freedom to de- 
velop its powers and satisfy its ambition. America is tlic nation of the peo- 
ple, and to become of the people of America it suffices to be man. 

Do the inhabitants of Hawaii rise to the high requirements of 
American citizenship? In 1896 there were 10D,020 inhabitants in 
the Hawaiian Islands. Of these there were 31,019 full-blooded 
Hawaiians, 8,435 part Hawaiians, 24,407 Japanese, 21,C1G Chinese. 
15,191 Portuguese, 2,266 Americans, and 1,538 subjects of Great 
Britain. From these figures it will be seen that the three impor- 
tant races, numerically, in the islands are the Hawaiians proper, 
the Mongolians, and the so-called Portuguese. 

These three races figiire 100,000 out of a population of 109,000. 
The Hawaiian is an insouciant, indolent creature. With him a 
longing for repose is a gift of nature. He is more inclined to aes- 
thetics than to ethics. He delights in flowers that grow without 
cultivation, in listening to nnisic, and in seeing other people dance. 
Intellectually and industrially he lags superfluous on the scene. 
After a century's contact with civilization his race has dwindled 
from 400,000 to 40,000. The white man has stamped out his reli- 
gion, his traditions. Ilis lauds have slipped away from him. He 
no longer has a voice in theGovernment. It docs not lie in human 
nature for him to be rriendly to the white man, and he would 
prove a permanent menace to our Govfrnmcnt. 

The Mongolian — the gentle heathen — we are already accjuainted 
with. Such a citizen is he that we have thought lit to deal with 
him after the Draconian method. 

There was a pr;)vi.sion in the treaty nov/ withdrawn, wliich id 
tacked onto this re.solution, .seeking to prevent the (Miineso now in 
Hawaii from removing to other parts of the United Stales in tlie 
event of aimexation. In other word.s, per.sons safely within our 
borders and guiltless of any offense again.st our laws are fori. id- 



8 

den from moving freely throngbout oiir territory. I would like 
to be a Cbinaman— not for a great wbile— just long enougb to test 
this monstrous doctrine. It looks very mucb like a return to tbe 
days when tbe serfs were part and i^arcel of tbe soil. 

Tbe so-called Portuguese is a mixture of many bloods, and all 
inferior. He came from tbe Island of Madeira and not from Por- 
tugal. He is a degraded i^eon, wntbout a single quality tbat goes 
to make up tbe acceptable American citizen. 

Senators on tbis floor bave lately taxed tbeir ingenuity in fram- 
ing bills to exclude from tbe United States tbe compatriots of 
Hofer, Kosciusko, Kossutb, and Garibaldi, and now tbey ask us 
to swallow at a gulp tbis variegated agglomeration of tbe fag-ends 
of humanity. But Ibis unsavory population is not all that we 
will have to swallow. At the foot of an insurmountable cliff 
there juts out from tbe Island of Molokai a low-lying, narrow 
peninsula, girt about by the impassable ocean. On this strip of 
land are segregated some fourteen hundred lepers— doomed be- 
ings, who have shut to themselves tbe doors of tbeir own sepnl- 
cher. 

Stevenson writes from personal experience: 

On landing on Molokai you behold tlie stairs ci'o-wded with abominable de- 
formations of our common manhood, and find yourself in the midst of such 
a population as only now and then surrounds us in the horror of delirium. 
As wo move on, every fourth face forms a blot upon the landscape. ^Ye visit 
the hospital and see the butt ends of human beiuj^s lying there almost unrec- 
ognizable, but still breathing, still thinking, still remembering. It is a piti- 
ful place to visit and a hell to dwell in. Here one breathes the atmosphere of 
affliction, disease, and physical disgrace. 

^lolokai is neglected by travelers. None of tbe gentlemen who 
recently went from Washington to Hawaii for investigation vis- 
ited it. This is strange, because this leper colony is uui(iue the 
world over. It is tbe most interesting point in tbe island, patho- 
logically speaking. Leprosy is a mysterious disease, about which 
but two things are definitely known: It is not hereditary and it is 
contagious. Dr. Morrow, in the North American Review, writes: 

That in addition to the lepers in Molokai there are probably two or three 
times as many at large in whom the disease is latent or in the incubative 
stage, yet none the less sure to develop. It is probable that with the relax- 
ation of our strict regulations on the Pacific coast, which may be assumed 
would follow annexation, many lepers would, in their desire to escape Molo- 
kai, emigrate to thi3 country. The principal danger would come from the 
establishment of more intimate commercial relations, the opening of now 
enterprises inviting capital and labor, and consequent thereon the influx of 
^89 



Americans into the islands and their exposnro to contact with the tainted 
population. 

That snch contact is not devoid of danger is evident from the nnnilior of 
foreigners who contract the disease. In the event of aimexation it WDUld bo 
idle to think of conflniug leprosy to tho islands, or rather cxeludiuB it from 
this countrj", by quarantiuo measures. In its earlier stago leprosy de- 
fies detection, and no system of quarantine has ever Iwon devised which 
would exclude the importation of a disease so littlo manifest on ordinary in- 
spection as leprosy; only tho more advanced cases could bo detected. Thero 
would seem to bo no reasonable doubt that tho annexation of Hawaii would 
create conditions favorable to the dissemination of the seeds of le])ro.sy in 
this country. Experience shows that in all countries where leprosy has bo- 
come epidemic its advance is insidious. It spreads slowlj*, and before the 
health authoritiL's awaken to tho realization of danger it has made such head- 
way that its further progress can not ba arrested. All of these facts should 
be carefully considered and their importance from a sanitary point of view 
carefully weighed by our legislative authorities before deciding upon the an- 
nexation of Hawaii with its leprous population. 

Dr. Morrow estimates that more than 10 per cent of the Hawaiian 
race is affected with leprosy. Another writer puts it at o per 
cent of the total population. Of course accurate leper statistics 
are not to be obtained. The Hawaiian officials are dumb on this 
subject, and Government publications are significantly silent. 

That portion of the President's annual message which treats of 
Hawaii is a feat in composition. How carefully he has lifted tho 
English language over the rough spots— the many difficulties that 
beset this question. Out of verbal confusion rings one clear utter- 
ance: 

Every consideration of dignity and honor requires the confii-mation of the 
treaty. 

Dignity is a matter of taste, and need not be discnssed. If honor 
requires annexation, conversely those who oppose confirmation 
are lacking in the point of honor. This is a grave charge, but one 
which neither history nor the humanities will sustain. A handful 
of aliens have traded the natives out of their birthright, and wo 
are asked in the name of honor to confirm their title. A few con- 
sinrators, aided by a United States minister, acting without spe- 
cific authority, have overthix»wn the accepted, legitimate Govern- 
ment 'if the islands. They have substituted an oligarchy of their 
own, and now, in tho name of honor, wo are asked to stamp with 
our approval their proceedings. Since the advent of tbe white 
man every leaf in the history of Hawaii is either red with blood 
or black with intrigue and jobbery. In the name of honor we are 
asked to bind up these tarnished pages in the book of records of 



10 

this Republic. It is travesty to dress up this political manikin of 
the further seas in the garb of honor. It is a misfit, a waste of 
good material. 

If annexation is to harden into fact, one of two things will hap- 
pen: Either Hawaii will bscome a State, a rotten borough, with 
two representatives on this floor, or it will remain a Territory in 
perpetuity, a proconsulate, a condition repugnant to our institu- 
tions. If such a political programme is to prevail, our idea of 
manhood equality before the law is simply a passing show, a piece 
of theatrical machinery to be relegated to the " property room," 
never again to be trundled out upon the stage. 

I am not here in a narrow spirit. I propose to legislate for the 
welfare of the whole nation. Still I can not refrain from asking 
myself this question: In the region of country from which I come, 
•nniversal political contamination aside, what direct interest have 
the people in this mirage of the Pacific? That some Mercutio of 
ours may lay down his life in this masquerade of mock democracy 
is probable. That we will throw away good money in this venture 
is certain. Beyond these things, Hawaii will have no more ex- 
istence for us than the Island of Monte Christo. 

In his message the President implies that three-quarters of a 
century of American diplomacy has ripened into a necessity for 
annexation. I do not read history in that light. In 184:2 Presi- 
dent Tyler wrote: 

Hawaii should bo respected and all its rights strictly and conscientiously- 
regarded. It is deemed not unfit to make the declaration that our Govern- 
ment seeks no peculiar advantages, no exclusive control over the Hawaiian 
Government, but is content with its independent existence, and anxiously 
wishes for its sec-urity and prosperity. 

In 184.3 Mr. Webster, as'Secretary of State, entered into a treaty 
agreement with England and France to keep their hands off the 
Hawaiian Islands. He writes. 

Wc seek no control over the Hawaiian Government, nor any undue iuflu- 
cnco wliatevor. Our only wish is that the integrity and independence of the 
Hawaiian territory may bo scrupulously maintained. 

In 1849 President Taylor said: 

We desire that the islands may maintain their independence and that other 
nations may concur with us in this sentijuent. 

In 1850 Mr. Clayton, Secretary of State, agreed with this view. 

34?9 



11 

On Jnly 11, IS.jI, Mr. Webster ■wrote: 

In (I'-kiiowloilging the imli-pemlenco of tho islands anil of the povcrnniont 
establishoil ovcm- them it uianicly, tho United .States) was not svokinR to pro- 
mote any peculiar ohjeot of its own. What it did, and all that it did, was 
done openly in the face of day, in entire good faith, and known to all nations. 
* • ♦ This Government still desires to see tho nationality cf the Hawaiian 
Govornment maintained, its independent administration of public ufTuirs 
respected, and its prosperity and reputation increased. But while thus in- 
disposed to exercise sinister inlluenco itself over the councils of Hawaii, or to 
overawe the proceedings of its government by tho menace or tho actual ap- 
plication of superior military force, it expects to see other powerful nations 
act in the same manner. 

In 1 Sol President Fillmore dcclareil: 

The islands should not iMiss under the control of any great maritime state, 
but should remain in .an independent condition, and so be accessible and use- 
ful to the commerce of all nations. 

Mr. Blaine wrote on November 19, 1881: 

The Government of the United States has, with unvarying consistency, 
manifested respect for tho independence of tho Hawaiian Kingdom and an 
earnest desire for the welfare of its people. * * * The Govornment of 
the United States has always avowed, and now repeats, that under no cir- 
cumstances will it permit tho transfer of tho territory or sovereignty to any 
of the great European powers. 

In 18S7 Secretary Bayard said to our Minister Merrill: 

As is well known, no intent is cherished or policy entertained by the United 
States which is otherwise than friendly to the autonomical control and in- 
dependence of Hawaii. 

James A. Garfield declared: 

Hawaiian annexation would weaken the pov.-or of our iwoplo and Govern- 
ment. 

In this unbroken chain of opinion there is not one word which 
suggests annexation. "Hands off all round" has been our con- 
sistent policy in th? past, and autonomy ought to bo our plan in 
the future. 

The conduct of tho friends of annexation has been somewhat 
reprehensible. Not content with importing tho President of a 
sister Republic to awe this Legislature, not long ago they brought 
into this Chamber a map of tho Pacific Ocean. This confronted 
ns day after day like a threatening cloud. On their map they 
painted lurid streaks "that did tho multitudinous sea incarna- 
dine "—streaks that burnt into the retina a bloodshot vision not 
to bo dispelled. But this day and night mare has not been with- 
ont its uses. How edifying to watch lines scurrying from all 
over the globe, concentrating irresistibly on thi:j magnetic speck 



12 

in midocoan! The shooting star of empire at last has found a 
resting place. And then these converging lines form a web which 
recalls our happy childhood and the recitation: 

"Will you walk into my parlor?"' 

Said tho spider to the fly; 
" 'Tis tho prettiest little parlor 

That ever you did spy." 

And what a walk it is! Hawaii is farther from anywhere else 
than any other spot on earth. Falkland is 6,379 miles away; the 
Nicaragut\ Canal, 4,210; Auckland, 3,350; Sitka, 2,305; while 
Japan, our rival for the Hawaiian hand, is in the seductive prox- 
imity of 3,399 miles. 

But it seems that it is distance that lends enchantment to tho 
strategic eye. From the Washington Post of December 10, 1897, 
I quote: 

There are few man in the country as well qualified to speak in regard to 
Hawaiian matters as Lieut. Col. Charles P. Egan, United States Army, one 
of the most accomplished gentlemen in Uncle Sam's service. Speaking with 
friends at the Ebbitt yesterday. Colonel Egan said: " Now is the golden op- 
portunity of the United States to annex Hawaii. The time may never be so 
favorable again if we let the present chance pass. The argument that the 
country is too far away is absurd; in fact, the distance is rather an advantage. 
It will give an opening for our ships of war and will bo an additioi^al reason 
for the upbuilding of our Navy." 

Other Army and Navy officers have expressed themselves in the 
same strain. It is natural they should do so. On any proposition 
looking toward an increase of either branch of the service their 
answer is ready-made. 1 do not accept professional soldiers as my 
guides in public policy. It is true we are a fighting people— our 
graveyards attest it. But we are not a belligerent power. May 
Heaven preserve us from such a fate. What makes England great 
is her formidable navy. What has made us great in the past is 
the absence of heavy armaments. It is the one undisputed advan- 
tage that we have over all civilized nation.^. Thomas Jefferson 
does not agree with Co'.onel Egan in the doctrine of dispersal. 
He wrote to President Monroe, in 1809, touching the proposed an- 
nexation of Cuba: 

It will be objected to our receiving Cuba that no limit can be drawn to our 
future acquisitions. Cuba can be defended by us without a navy; and this 
develops the principle which ought to limit our views. Nothing should ever 
bo accepted which would require a navy to defend it. 
•Mi 'J 



13 

Secretary Frolinghuyseii wrote to Mr. Laugston uiuler date of 
Jiiuo 20, 18S3: 

Tlio policy of this Govcriimoiit, as declare;! on many occasions in tho past, 
has tended toward avoidance of poisossions disconnected from the main coa- 
tiucnt. 

In 1884 he said to the same minister: 

A conviction that a fixed policy, dating back to tho origin of our constitu- 
tional Government, was considered to make it inexpedient to attempt terri- 
torial aggrandizement which would require maintenance by a naval force in 
excess of any yet provided for our national uses, has led this Government to 
decline territorial acquisitions. Even as simjilo coaling stations such terri- 
torial acquisitions would involve responsibilities beyond their utility. The 
United States has never deemed it needful to their national lifd to maintain 
impregnable fortresses along tho world's highways of commerce. 

Williiim E. Gladstone writes of the destiny of this Republic in 
his Kin Beyond the Seas: 

The United States has tho natural base of tho greatest continuous empiro 
that has over been established by man, and the distinction between a con- 
tinuous empire and one dispersed over the sea is vital. America will proba- 
bly become what we are now, the head servant in the great household of the 
world, because her service will be most and tho ablest; for tho growth in one 
century from 3.00(1,000 to aj,00(i,030 encourages tho belief that in 1990 America 
will have 500,000,000 of people. 

On the subject of naval expansion I quote from an able paper 
written by M. S. Stuyvcsant, of St. Louis: 

I do not believe that wo need what is known as "sea power" for use out- 
side ol our own waters. To put it in another way, we will not have to keep 
pace with England and the continental powers in this expensive matter of 
building battle ships if our coasts are impregnable, because— 

1. We have no foreign colonics to defend. 

2. We are not in tho business of apjiropriating tho lands of defenseless 
people and have no "zones of influence" to squabble over. 

3. We have no coaling stations scattered all over tho world to fortify and 
maintain connection with. 

i. Our chances of having to go to war would be materially lessened. No 
nation would be anxious to quarrel with us if they could not hurt us. Wo 
can safely leave the struggle for preponderant sea power to other nations 
less fortunately situated, if only our coast defenses are in condition to repol 
attack. 

On the strategic advantages of Hawaii Capt. A. T. Mahan has 

been appealed to and has dutifully come to the front. He says: 

Too much stress can not be laid on the imraen.se disadvantage tons of any 
maritime enemy having a coaling station well within 2,.')00 miles, as this is, of 
every point of our coast lino from Pugot Sound to Mexico. Were thoro 
many others available wo might find itdifil<-ult tooxcludo them all. Th<>reiii, 
however, but one. Shut out from tho Sandwirh Isl-inds as a coal base, an 
enemy is thrown back for supplies of fuel to distances of 3,r>U) or 4,()i)0 miles, 
or between T,O.X)and 8,000 miles going and coming, an imixsdimcnt to sustained 



14 

maritime operations well nigh prohibitive. * * * It is rarely that so im- 
portant a factor in the attack or defense of a coast line— of a sea frontier— is 
concentrated in a single position, and this circumstance renders it doubly 
imperative upon us to secure it if we righteously can. 

According to Captain Malian, with these islands in oxar posses- 
sion a navy seeking to attack our coast would have to steam some 
7,000 miles without recoaling. He speaks of an enemy being thus 
thrown back for supplies. What possible enemies have we to en- 
counter in the Pacific? There are but two — England and Japan. 
Frowning over our frontier, near the southern extremity of Van- 
couver Island, is the first-class naval arsenal of Esquimault. 
With this and her master navy England is indilierentas to whether 
we hold Hawaii or not. The Japanese are a long-headed people. 
They are not given to running on quixotic errands. They do not 
dream of attacking our Pacific coast. If they ever attempt it, 
their shii)S would have no need of recoaling on the return trip. 

Captain Mahan"s opinion and my crude notions of strategy do 
not agree, I have always iinderstood that in war the more one 
spreads out the more one is weakened, the more one concentrates 
the more one is strengthened. The advocates of annexation con- 
stantly refer to Hawaii as an outpost. An outpost is a detach- 
ment from the main body thrown forward for purposes of obser- 
vation, retreating and reenforcing the main body when occasion 
requires. In the event of war Hawaii could not fall back, it could 
not fall forward, and it would refuse to sink into the sea. It 
would have to be defended by fortifications and guarded by a 
fleet. 

It is but fair to admit that Hawaii has its attractive features, 
its allurements. To the world-stroller it offers a blissful sojourn — 
a life with something of the Garden of Eden about it— plenty of 
leisure and few clothes. Here the traveler breathes the fragrance 
of flowers, regales himself on rich fruits, and revels in the ever- 
tepid sea. When the sensuous palls upon him, there is subject for 
moralizing. He can climb Mount Kilauea, peep into its crater, 
which does the most active business on the islands, and ponder 
over the possibilities of the future. 

At nightfall he seeks the shelter of the lanai, a shed with live 

trees for posts and interwoven palm leaves for a roof. Here, 

seated on the grass, his neck encircled with a lei, a wreath of 
ati'j 



15 

flowers, he joins in the liiau, a native bnnciuet. The feed is BfrveJ 
on leavesof aromatic plants hy way of tali'.oclotli. With his fiuj^irs 
he dips poi out of a oalabasli. llv pai tikes of siu-kiiig piir. roasted 
in a lunn, an underground oven. IIo devourH raw fisli, livo 
shrimps, j'auis, and watermelon, wanhing the whole down with 
copious draughts of awa. the alcoholic bovorago of Polyms'a. 
Satiated, with a parting aloha, ho retires to some opening among 
the palm trees and takes a moonshine bath, meanwhile conning 
the Kanaka, if he is an American with aspirations, knowing that 
an acquaintance with that dialect will bo a re<iuirement in the 
next catechism ot the Civil Service Commission. 

Uncle Sam may long for relaxation of this kind; but, afttr all, 
he will be wise to imitate the .sage Uly?ses. As he approached 
the island of the Sirens, whose song was death, Ulysses filled his 
sailors' ears with beeswax to dull their hearing and had himself 
bound to the mast for fear that he might weakiu. Then, signal- 
ing his men to bend to theii' oars, he swiftly lied the dangerous 
coast. 

31S9 

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